Generally, microelectronic devices, such as semiconductor devices, are manufactured via a plurality of processing steps, including diffusion, oxidation, photo-lithography, ion implantation, and the like. These processing steps may be performed repeatedly and in a certain order. Each processing step may require a specific processing gas to perform various tasks, such as deposition, etching, purging, and the like. Semiconductor device production yields may be affected by density variations of these processing gases and by contaminants entrained therein. Accordingly, extensive analysis of these processing gases for density variations and contaminants may be performed during the manufacturing of semiconductor devices. Exemplary devices for analyzing processing gases include: Gas Chromatography Discharge Ionic Detector (GC-DIC), Gas Chromatography Thermal Conductivity Detector (GC-TCD); Gas Chromatography Flammable Ionic Detector (GC-FID); Atmospheric Pressure Ionization Mass Spectrometer (API-MS); Electronic Ionization Mass Spectrometer (EI-MS); moisture analyzers, and the like.
Semiconductor processing gases are monitored for density variations and contaminants by analyzing samples thereof. Typically, the supply source of each processing gas has a sample line connected to a corresponding analyzer. Unfortunately, utilizing separate sample lines to supply processing gas samples to multiple analyzers may be somewhat complicated and time consuming, which may lead to lower manufacturing productivity.